


and full of life and full of love

by Yevynaea



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And also less sad obviously, Canonical Character Death, Caves, Cute, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Julia Burnsides Lives, Listen my every1 is poly & angus has 15 parents au doesnt work if julias still dead, Minor Injuries, Monster Fights, Mostly Fluff, One Shot, Orpheus and Eurydice Myth, Resurrection, Short & Sweet, What-If, except slightly less one-sided and sexist maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 06:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12029946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yevynaea/pseuds/Yevynaea
Summary: "She's only done this a few times,” Kravitz continues. “And it isn't like She wants to play games with you-- I mean, maybe She kind of does, She's an ancient death deity with a morbid sense of humor-- but this is just the only way to get around the rules so--”“I can do it.” Magnus interrupts, quiet and sure, and Kravitz stares at his friend's determined face for a long few moments.“Okay.” he replies.





	and full of life and full of love

Kravitz is not nervous. He  _ isn't _ . He's just a little apprehensive, still wound up from his unexpected meeting with the Raven Queen, just a little bit concerned about the deal he's been instructed to make. He isn't  _ nervous _ . That's a different emotion entirely.

He manages something like a goodbye and leaves Lup and Barry to work on their own-- it's only been a few months, but they're  _ good _ at being reapers, so Kravitz is fairly sure they'll be alright without him around for the day-- and he opens a rift.

 

Magnus is eating lunch when a tear in space opens up in his living room, and Kravitz steps through.

“Hey, Krav,” Magnus greets easily, and the reaper visibly hesitates before replying.  _ Uh oh. _

“Magnus,” Kravitz nods in his direction, but doesn't say more, and Magnus’ smile falls.

“What is it?” he asks. Kravitz taps his fingers rhythmically against the handle of his scythe, and they change, flesh dissolving off of them and then growing back instantaneously. “That's kinda gross,” Magnus points out.

Kravitz looks at his hand like he’s just now realizing what it's doing.

“Sorry,” he says. He clears his throat, a little awkwardly. “I… the Raven Queen wanted me to, uh… well…” Kravitz seems unsure how to continue, but before Magnus can say anything, the reaper finds his words. Or, some words. “She can't just-- She can't straight up break all the rules for you guys. You get that, right? We cleared your death counts, because  _ circumstances _ , but that-- that's different from… this.”

“Uh,” says Magnus. “Okay? Yeah, I get it, um… what is ‘this', exactly?”

Kravitz takes a very deep breath that he doesn't actually need, being dead and all.

“She wants to give you a deal. A challenge. It’s-- well, it’s a chance to bring Julia back.” he says.

And Magnus’ whole world falls away.

 

Kravitz explains the deal thoroughly,  _ twice _ , because the first time Magnus only appears to hear every third word or so.

“She's only done this a few times,” Kravitz continues. “And it isn't like She  _ wants  _ to play games with you-- I mean, maybe She kind of does, She's an ancient death deity with a morbid sense of humor-- but this is just the only way to get around the rules so--”

“I can do it.” Magnus interrupts, quiet and sure, and Kravitz stares at his friend's determined face for a long few moments.

“Okay.” he replies.

 

“This looks like a normal cave,” Magnus says.

“It's a pretty normal cave,” Kravitz agrees. “Except there's a stable portal to the Astral Plane inside, so the cave is the challenge.”

“Cool,” Magnus says, insincerely.

“Good luck,” Kravitz says, very sincerely.

 

Magnus makes his way down, deeper and deeper into the cave, feeling more and more determined as he descends, and more and more concerned with each monster he hears but does not encounter. He will have to fight them all on the way back, he suspects.

It takes so long to reach the bottom of the cave that he ends up making camp to sleep, at one point, before continuing down. When he reaches the bottom, the portal is there, a perfect circle of sapphire in the wall, and behind it are two distorted figures.

The taller of the two beckons him forward, through, and Magnus goes.

 

Kravitz stands at the Raven Queen’s side, with one hand in his pocket and one gently holding the small spirit form of Julia Burnsides. Despite currently being an indistinct ball of light, Julia somehow looks joyful when Magnus appears.

 

“Magnus Burnsides,” the Raven Queen says, and her voice is a roar and a whisper at once, and her form is rippling and unstable, and Magnus is already dizzy. Kravitz, standing at the goddess’ side, doesn't seem to have the same problem.

“H-hi,” Magnus says. “Hey, hello, um, your Majesty? Raven Queen, ma’am, uh,  _ thank you _ , for this.”

“Of course,” She replies. “Should you both succeed, consider this my thanks for doing so much to help save this world.”

Magnus nods, then pauses.

“Wait, both?” he asks.

“Julia, dear, do you remember your challenge?” the Raven Queen asks, looking to Her side, and Magnus follows Her and Kravitz’s gazes to the small light in Kravitz’s hand.

“Jules,” Magnus whispers, heart ready to jump out of his chest.

 

Julia isn't used to being a little light. It's very confining, and a little weird, to be held in one hand by the Grim Reaper. But this is the form she will take at first when she follows Magnus back to the Material Plane, so she supposes she just has to deal. She would grin, when she senses Magnus, would laugh, when he doesn't seem to know what to say to the goddess in front of him, but all she can do is glow, and wait.

“Julia, dear, do you remember your challenge?” the Raven Queen asks.

“ _ Yes, _ ” Julia says, and the sound of her voice is spectral and strange to her own ears. She knows Magnus can't hear her now, that he won't be able to until they're on the other side of the portal.

 

“Are you ready, Magnus?” the Raven Queen asks, and he tears his eyes from the light that is Julia.

“Yes,” he says. The Raven Queen smiles.

“Good.” She says. “Turn and go. The challenge begins when you step back through the portal, and it will end when you fail, or when you step back into light.”

“I understand,” Magnus assures her. He glances at Julia one more time, then at Kravitz, who nods, a  _ you can do this _ sort of gleam in his eye.

Magnus turns, and steps back through the sapphire.

 

As soon as Magnus turns around, the Raven Queen nods to Kravitz, and he releases Julia.

_ You must follow him, all the way out of the cave, into the sunlight. You will become more solid the closer you get to the surface. He cannot turn back or look upon you. You cannot speak a single word to him, or warn him of dangers he will be facing,  _ the Raven Queen’s words come back to Julia, the terms of the deal they've been offered.

With a deep breath she doesn't need-- and that really ends up being more like a fluctuation in brightness than a breath-- she follows her husband through the portal.

 

He knew it would be hard, but the first time the light reflecting off the cave walls starts to dim, he almost turns. He wants to turn, wants to make sure she's still there. He takes a breath, and continues onward, torch held higher now that he needs it more.

 

She knew it would be hard, but the first time she senses a monster she almost calls out, instinctively moving forward a few feet before she has the presence of mind to move back. She stays resolutely silent, even as he walks forward, right past a single grimlock sleeping just off to the side of the tunnel. The grimlock sniffs but doesn't wake, and Magnus keeps moving, oblivious. Julia breathes a silent sigh of relief.

 

Magnus almost turns again the first time he hears soft footfalls behind him. He knows from Kravitz that Julia will be fully alive and human shaped by the time they reach the mouth of the cave, and right now is probably a Julia-shaped ghost, but he didn't know ghosts had audible footsteps.

 

Julia could cheer, when she regains her form; she's still ghostly and transparent, but she's Julia-shaped and not a floating ball of light, so that is good enough for now. She remains silent, but she grins, letting her feet hit the ground and reveling in the sound they make, and the fact that she's already substantial enough to leave footprints.

 

He kills a snake-- not a monster snake, just a regular one-- and then feels kinda bad for killing it, but it did try to bite him.

 

Julia puts a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing, when Magnus apologizes to the dead snake.

A little later, she covers her mouth again, to keep from screaming as a giant spider catches Magnus by surprise and gets a  _ vicious _ bite into his arm before he manages to get out from underneath it. Magnus carefully keeps his back to Julia the whole fight, pushing forward, attacking until the spider is dead at his feet. The bite didn't do too much damage through his sleeve, but when he cleans the blood away to bandage the wound, Julia can see little veins of poison under his skin.

“Son of a  _ bitch _ ,” he hisses in pain, then, without turning, he says, “y’know, coming downhill was  _ way  _ easier.”

If there was breath in her lungs, it would catch, and she panics for a moment before remembering that it's fine, that Magnus can talk, he can speak to  _ her _ , she just can't reply. Gods, this would kill her if she wasn't already dead.

 

Magnus keeps talking. He isn't sure if Jules can even hear him-- she certainly hasn't replied-- but he comments on shiny rocks they pass, complains about monsters he has to fight (two grimlocks and an unfriendly skeleton, now, plus the spider; he’s going to be significantly bloodied by the time they reach the surface, he thinks), and tells little stories: about rebuilding Raven’s Roost, about their years apart, about his friends and his family, everyone he can't wait for her to meet.

When he sets up to rest for the night (if it is, in fact, night, since all times of day look the same underground) he lays himself sort of diagonal in the tunnel, so that even if he rolls over in the night, his eyes will open to the wall, and not to Julia.

“G’night, Jules,” he says, yawning.

 

Julia bites her tongue, and says nothing.

 

Magnus wakes up in the morning with a bat sucking blood out of his finger, and he yelps, shaking his hand until it releases him with a shriek and flies away into the dark. Magnus lights a torch, packs up, and continues onward, upward, toward the mouth of the cave. (The bat soon comes back with a swarm of friends, but he manages to fend them off with his torch and his axe, and none of them get their little fangs in him again.)

 

Julia sees, as the swarm flies away, one of the bats try to nestle down in Magnus’ hair, and her husband shouts in alarm and swats it away. She holds back a laugh.

 

“Seriously, Jules, the way downhill seemed a  _ lot  _ shorter.”

 

She clenches her hands into fists as she silently moves past the corpses of each monster Magnus has to defeat. None of them are too big, too dangerous, but they all have advantages in this dark tunnel, especially considering Magnus can't even turn around. Damage piles up, Julia knows.

 

Magnus is just a  _ little _ bloodied, and more than a little bruised, by the time he sees sunlight again, and his legs feel like they're about to  _ fall off _ , but he hasn't turned, and the footsteps following him sound more solid with every passing minute. As he steps past the mouth of the cave, and then a few steps further into the light, just in case, he finally,  _ finally,  _ turns, and--

 

Julia is completely corporeal and solid by the time she sees sunlight, though there's still no breath in her lungs, and her heart isn't beating yet. As she moves past the mouth of the cave, and then a few steps further into the light, she sees Magnus start to turn around, and--

 

\--he’s being pulled down into a kiss.

 

\--she rushes in to pull her husband down for a kiss. She feels her heart start beating, fast, and when they break apart she's laughing and crying (and so is he) and has to remind herself to inhale.

 

“Jules,” Magnus manages, and that's all, because he's laughing and crying and kissing her again and she's in his arms and still the most beautiful person he’s ever seen, even with his memories back.

 

“Mags,” Julia manages in reply. “You did it.”

“So did you,” he smiles, sappy and joyful.

“I'm pretty great,” she agrees, and he laughs and kisses her again.

“Gods, I missed you.” he whispers, holding her close and resting his head on top of hers.

“I missed you too,” she whispers back.

  
“Let's go home.”


End file.
